Wireless equipment maker Colubris Networks made its first acquisition today, snapping up Wi-Fi startup Kiwi Networks for an undisclosed sum.
Radio frequency and packet scheduling products from privately held Kiwi help corporations and carriers limit interference and reduce congestion on Wi-Fi systems.
Bob Olson, a spokesman for Waltham, Mass.-based Colubris, said other firms do what Kiwi does, but not at the same level of sophistication.
“As WLANs (define) continue to be deployed, interference will become an increasingly difficult problem as more and more signals overlap,” Olson told internetnews.com. “Kiwi has patents and personnel that have solved this problem.”
In addition, WLAN capacity will be impacted with more services running across networks, a problem Kiwi’s technology also addresses. Colubris’ multiservice WLAN systems incorporating Kiwi technology are expected to ship by year’s end.
Kiwi’s Campbell, Calif., headquarters will become Colubris’ West Coast sales and development office. Shimon Scherzer, Kiwi co-founder, president and CEO, will lead the engineering team in California, Colubris said.
Colubris’ acquisition comes fewer than three weeks after the company banked $15 million in third-round venture capital financing led by Doll Capital Management. To date, Colubris has now raised $36 million and it may still be shopping. Colubris has 88 employees.
“We are always looking for both acquisitions and partnerships,” said Olson, who noted that Colubris has partner pacts with network equipment giants Alcatel (Quote, Chart) and Juniper (Quote, Chart).
Colubris now has more than 1,000 customers, including those in the carrier, hospitality, retail, education and health care sectors.
